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2011 Guiraud, Sauternes (Pre-Arrival)

SKU #109091199 points
James Suckling

This wine has exceptional clarity, balance and freshness, with lots of spicy botrytis character. Full body, medium-sweet and a crisp finish. It’s racy and refined. What’s impressive is the intensity of noble rot that makes the wine feel almost dry. This is the greatest wine ever made here. Made from organic grapes. Try in 2017, but already delicious to drink.
(1/2014)

An intense wine that is rich, rounded, dense and solid. Along with its weighty, ripe fruit, there are suggestions of acidity. Layered with botrytis flavors.
(4/2012)

92-95 points
Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar

(5.8 total acidity; 140 g/l residual sugar): Bright golden yellow. Brooding nose of lemon, quince, pineapple, minerals and saffron complicated by tangy botrytis. Rich and dense in the mouth, with racy acidity lifting and extending the mineral and ripe citrus flavors. Finishes rich, dense and very long, with lingering floral and ripe citrus nuances. This Guiraud is still very much an infant and is likely to develop more slowly than most other 2011s, but it's destined to be a great wine for this estate.
(8/2012)

* Plenty of rich botrytis fruit flavors, with pineapple, honey, coconut and white flower aromas. Very thick and full-bodied. One of the heavier styles in 2011.

Additional Information:

Varietal:

Semillon

- A rich, viscous, full-flavored but subtly-scented and botrytis-prone white grape, Sémillon reaches magical heights when infected with "noble rot" and combined with even small amounts of the aromatic and high-acid Sauvignon Blanc to make Sauternes, one of the world's most revered and longest-lived wines, and in the sweet wines of surrounding regions like Barsac. Sémillon's most famous incarnation is in the wines of Château d'Yquem, one of the world's most expensive wines, and one that has been known to evolve for centuries. It frequently dominates, but not by much, in the oak-aged whites of Bordeaux's Graves and Pessac-Léognan, creating honeyed and viscous wines that are unlike any others. Elsewhere in Bordeaux and around France it takes on a supporting role in the wines of Entre-Deux-Mers and the Médoc. While planted throughout France, Europe, California and Washington, Sémillon's role as underling usually keeps it out of the spotlight with a few winery-specific exceptions. However, the grape is allowed to shine in Australia's Hunter Valley, where it is used to make an elegant dry wine often called, perplexingly, Hunter Valley Riesling. It also makes some incredible dry, oaked wines from the Barossa and lovely stickies in the style of Sauternes.

Country:

France

- When it comes to wine, France stands alone. No other country can beat it in terms of quality and diversity. And while many of its Region, Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne most obviously, produce wine as rare, as sought-after and nearly as expensive as gold, there are just as many obscurities and values to be had from little known appellations throughout the country. To learn everything there is to know about French wine would take a lifetime. To understand and appreciate French wine, one only has to begin tasting them. Click for a list of bestselling items from all of France.